Through speeches, articles and communications from Biden and his campaign staff, the Democratic candidate has provided a broad picture of what his defense policy might look like if he is elected. His platform indicates a smaller defense budget to make way for greater spending on domestic infrastructure and health care, as well as views on foreign policy that stand in contrast to the current administration.
"We can maintain a strong defense and protect our safety and security for less," Biden said in a November 2019 response to a questionnaire sent to Democratic presidential candidates, a position later adopted in the formal Democratic Party platform. "The real question is not how much we invest — it's how we invest."
Diplomacy, whether reentering the nuclear deal with Iran that the Trump administration exited, extending the New START treaty with Russia to limit nuclear proliferation, or trying to form a consensus with allies on security issues, is critical to national and international security, Biden has said.
"Working cooperatively with other nations that share our values and goals does not make the United States a chump," he wrote in a January op-ed in Foreign Affairs. "It makes us more secure and more successful."
In addition to foreign policy and defense spending, Biden also differs from President Donald Trump on issues such as the military's approach to LGBTQ and HIV-positive troops. Here, Law360 explores what the defense industry can expect from a Biden administration.
Foreign Policy
The Trump administration's reelection platform largely reiterates positions from the president's first term, including a push for U.S. allies to "pay their fair share" as part of Trump's long-running complaint about NATO allies spending what he has argued are disproportionately small amounts of their national budgets on defense.
Although Biden has said he agrees NATO members need to "do their fair share," he has also argued that the alliance is not intended to be transactional and that the approach taken by Trump has "alienated the United States from the very democratic allies it needs most."
"NATO is at the very heart of the United States' national security, and it is the bulwark of the liberal democratic ideal — an alliance of values, which makes it far more durable, reliable, and powerful than partnerships built by coercion or cash," he said in January.
According to Biden, Trump's approach to NATO is part of a broader "abdication of ... responsibility," and the Democrat's campaign website has said his administration would work with other nations to address "global challenges" such as the rise on autocracy, the "renewed threat of nuclear war" and climate change, with the U.S. taking a leading position in those efforts, a rebuke of the Trump administration's more isolationist approach to many international issues.
Perhaps the most key line related to Biden's foreign policy comes from his January op-ed, which was later adopted into his formal policy platform: "The world does not organize itself."
While Biden has promised to use force when necessary and to maintain "the strongest military in the world," the use of that force would be a last resort "only to defend our vital interests, when the objective is clear and achievable, and with the informed consent of the American people."
Instead, diplomacy will be the Biden administration's "principal tool," as cooperation is a key factor in helping to secure the U.S., according to his campaign.
That will include an effort to extend the New START treaty with Russia, set to expire in February, which seeks to curb nuclear proliferation, and to try to reenter the 2015 deal with Iran curbing its nuclear program in exchange for certain sanctions being lifted, if Iran agrees to comply with its conditions. The Trump administration withdrew from the Iran pact in 2018 after the president said the Obama-era deal was "one-sided" and "the worst deal ever."
In line with that, and in a position similar to the one taken by the Trump administration, Biden has promised to end "the forever wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East" and "bring the vast majority of our troops home," leaving behind only those necessary to fight al-Qaida and the Islamic State militant group, which will consist largely of special forces soldiers and "intelligence assets" to support local authorities.
Those wars are effectively unwinnable, and have cost "untold blood and treasure," draining resources away from other issues that need attention, whereas smaller-scale missions "are sustainable militarily, economically, and politically, and they advance the national interest," Biden said in January.
On China, Biden has signaled that the already frosty relationship with the superpower under the Trump administration is unlikely to thaw, with his campaign having run attack ads accusing the president of having "rolled over for the Chinese." And on Russia, Biden has said his administration would pay more attention to "nontraditional" threats such as disinformation and cybertheft.
Biden has been particularly vocal on election interference, in stark contrast to Trump's continued rejection of the U.S. Intelligence Community's conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to aid Trump's chances. In a July blog post, Biden said he "will treat foreign interference in our election as an adversarial act that significantly affects the relationship between the United States and the interfering nation's government."
On another recent hot-button issue, Biden has said he will end U.S. support for the "Saudi-led" civil war in Yemen, which implies a reduction in arms sales to the kingdom, the U.S.' biggest arms customer. Lawmakers have raised concerns about heavy civilian casualties to Yemenis from Saudi-led airstrikes.
Defense Spending and Procurement
Biden has hinted strongly at pursuing a lower defense budget, although without providing any hard numbers, while also talking about trying to get more out of the dollars provided to the Pentagon.
Along with his comment about "[protecting] our safety and security for less," he accused Trump in November of having "abandoned all fiscal discipline when it comes to defense spending." Trump has continually pushed for higher defense spending, although his administration's current plans through 2025 keep the defense budget essentially flat once inflation is taken into account.
Biden argued in November that the U.S. has "become over-dependent on the military to advance our security interests overseas — and underinvested in other tools including diplomacy, economic power, education, and science and technology."
He flagged an increase in domestic spending in areas such as infrastructure and health care, as well as investing more in "other elements of national power," including trade and diplomacy, with similar efforts usually accompanied by a decrease in defense spending.
What money is provided for defense will likely support a push by the U.S. Department of Defense to increase the use of emerging technologies, with Biden having said that he doesn't want the U.S. to fall behind other nations on technologies such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and 5G wireless. In November, he criticized Trump for "over-investing in legacy capabilities" and not doing enough in sectors such as space and cyberspace.
"The Biden administration will make the investments necessary to equip our troops for the challenges of the next century, not the last one," his campaign platform states.
While he hasn't explicitly said that he will pull back on the expensive nuclear modernization plan pushed by the Trump administration, Biden has also said he is alarmed about the prospect of increasing nuclear proliferation and "new nuclear arms race."
There is one area where it is clear Biden won't provide defense spending: Trump's signature southern border wall project, which Biden argued stole resources from more worthy projects like schools for military children. While the U.S. has a "right and duty to secure our borders and protect our people against threats," the wall is a "waste of money, and it diverts critical resources away from the real threats," according to Biden's campaign platform.
On federal procurement policy more broadly, the Biden campaign has taken on elements of the Trump administration's America First push, saying he will tighten Buy American requirements for federal acquisitions, and "invest $400 billion in additional federal purchases of products made by American workers" during his first term. The DOD is responsible for more than half of federal contract spending each year.
His platform states that the Buy American requirement "too often ... operates like a suggestion, not a requirement," with waivers being too easy to come by. Under a Biden presidency, waiver requests will be published in a public list, and there will be ways for domestic companies to "raise their hand and have a shot at stepping up" to fulfill those requirements, he said.
In addition, "made in America" labeling requirements will be tightened, and "critical supply chains" will be brought back to the U.S. in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden said in July. That would cover items such as medical supplies, drugs, and semiconductors and communications technologies, all of which are implicated in defense procurements.
Small disadvantaged businesses are perhaps the most likely federal contractors to directly benefit from a Biden presidency, with his platform including a push to increase the share of government contracting dollars that go to these companies from the current governmentwide goal of 5% up to 15%, alongside new federal technical assistance and preference programs.
To help facilitate that push, Biden has flagged a governmentwide review of contract "bundling," where what had previously been separate contracts are consolidated into large contracting vehicles. Biden's campaign has called it a racial justice issue.
"Contract bundling ... often prevents smaller firms owned by Black and Brown people from effectively bidding on procurement contracts," his platform states.
Domestic Defense Policy
Much of Biden's proposed domestic defense policy positions focus on how the DOD hires and retains troops, with his campaign platform for example saying he will reverse the DOD's contentious "transgender ban," which puts heavy limits on open service by transgender troops and has been hit with several lawsuits.
"This is discriminatory and detrimental to our national security," he said on his campaign website. "Every American who is qualified to serve in our military should be able to do so — regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity and without having to hide who they are."
Similarly, Biden has said he will rescind the current DOD policy on HIV-positive troops, which HIV-positive service members have argued has unfairly driven them out of the military or denied them promotions and does not reflect the current state of HIV treatments that have turned what used to be a terminal disease into a chronic, manageable condition. The Fourth Circuit earlier this year upheld an injunction against the policy.
And for veterans forced out under the previous LGBTQ policies, a Biden administration would seek to give them a way to apply to upgrade their discharge status, potentially making them eligible for benefits they were previously denied.
Biden has also pledged not to target foreign nationals in the military for deportation and has said his administration will create a "parole process" to allow veterans deported by the Trump administration to potentially return to the U.S.
He has yet to put forward any names for defense secretary, although one former government official has a strong claim, particularly with Biden's push to include women and minorities in his Cabinet and senior administration positions, as demonstrated in his choice of Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate. Michèle Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense for policy during the Obama administration, has put her hand up, saying in an August television interview that she would serve if asked, after earlier saying at the annual Aspen Security Forum that public service is her "calling."
Flournoy, the co-founder and managing partner of WestExec Advisors, a strategic advisory firm, is also a member of National Security Action, a group of former lawmakers and federal officials that has strongly criticized Trump's defense policy.
"Under President Trump's reckless leadership, the United States is weaker in the world, less safe, and more isolated," the group's website states.
--Editing by Breda Lund and Jill Coffey.
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